


The Doppelganger Effect

by geralehane



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, cat is cat, kara also probably suffers from a split personality disorder after this, kara is basically a puppy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-12 19:33:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5678002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geralehane/pseuds/geralehane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara Danvers, the human assistant, didn't have a chance in hell with Cat freaking Grant. Mostly due to the fact that Cat Grant was crushing on Supergirl, alien superhero. The thing that made this whole situation an absolute shituation was the fact that Kara Danvers, the human, was very much Supergirl, the superhero. And she was also ordering a bouquet of most exquisite flowers and making arrangements for dinner where Cat Grant was determined to woo Supergirl and Kara Danvers was supposed to help her.<br/>Fuck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> based on this tumblr post: http://widdle.tumblr.com/post/136781002300/ok-but-the-next-step-is-cat-being-convinced-that  
> shoutout to the wonderful person who came up with this idea.

Kara knew things would change somewhat. But she didn’t anticipate just _how much_ exactly. Not at work, no: at work, she was once again a normal, boring assistant to great Cat Freaking Grant, and lattes were lukewarm and her boss was mean and everything was right with the world. Well, Cat did start to warm up to her, Kara Danvers: she would share stories and offer advice, seemingly out of blue, but each time it would reach Kara when she needed it the most. Cat Grant still possessed her superpower when it came to mentoring her shy, mousy assistant, and Cat Grant still had no idea how much of an impact she had on her, Supergirl, when she schooled her, Kara Danvers. And Kara would have been completely fine and grateful if that was the only change in her life, apart from the fact that she now led a secret life of a superhero. But the Universe clearly had other plans, and the Universe clearly had a weird sense of humor. Sometimes, Kara thought that the Universe was just a bitch. 

It all started on the day of the robbery. And it would have been an ordinary day in her life, if Cat Grant hadn’t decided to open an account in that particular bank on that particular day.

* * *

 “Set me down gently!” Cat demanded as soon as they reached the balcony. She carefully lowered the woman to the ground, mindful of her ankle that seemed to be sprained. The younger woman still maintained that the injury could’ve been avoided if Cat didn’t insist on wearing her ridiculous heels all the time. Of course, she kept silent; instead offering to fly her to CatCo after the robbery was done and dealt with. Or, if she had to get technical, simply grabbing the protesting woman and carrying her through the air while she kept her eyes shut and silently prayed. Sometimes, not very silently. Kara wasn’t sure if she should take it personally or not. She wasn't  _that_ bad of a flyer, was she?

 “You’re safe now, Miss Grant,” she said, easily slipping back into her Supergirl persona. Finding a nearby chair, she helped the woman sit. “I still think we should fly to the hospital, but…” 

“Nonsense,” Cat waved her off. “Nothing a little freeze breath can’t fix.” 

“Freeze breath will only treat the symptoms, not the cause, Miss Grant,” Kara said. “You should really get that checked out by a doctor.” 

“And here I thought you were the ‘muscle’ in our dynamic duo,” Cat grimaced at her ankle, finally accepting the fact that it did hurt. She glanced at Supergirl, then. “Although, I must admit, the whole ‘beauty and brains’ thing is certainly working for you, dear.”

Kara struggled not to blush. Instead, she schooled her features into a smirk. Alex said it made her look arrogant and obnoxious, and those were the last things anyone would ever call Kara Danvers, and that was how the smirk became a Supergirl trademark. She placed her hands on her hips, proudly towering over the small form of her boss. Cat’s glance became a lingering gaze.

The smirk grew bigger.

“Well, if that’s all, I think it’s time for me to leave,” Kara said. “Goodbye, Miss Grant. Hopefully, next time we will meet under less severe circumstances. I would prefer seeing you when there’s no one holding a gun to anyone’s head.”

“Well, it wasn’t _my_ head.” Cat was doing that thing again where she pretended not to care. Kara Danvers would’ve called her out on it. Supergirl only nodded.

“Let’s hope it never will be.” She nodded to her boss as she prepared to take off. The wind carried Cat’s quiet, smiling _thank you_ to her ears, long after she passed CatCo’s roof. Kara imagined her still sitting in that chair, gingerly trying to touch her ankle, her thoughts far away from it, with her, Supergirl. And…

“ _Kiera!”_

Oh shit.

* * *

After a whole day of dealing with an annoyed Cat Grant, all Kara wanted was a hot bath and a pie. Not necessarily in that order, not necessarily separate. She walked out of CatCo into a chilly night air, taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it, careful not to accidentally freeze anything. Bath certainly sounded like heaven right now.

And air sounded like her boss.

“ _Supergirl, it’s me, Cat Grant. Gosh, I must sound like a crazy person. But you don’t have a Bat signal, and you refuse to give me your cellphone number, so…”_

Kara could’ve easily ignored her boss. It was after hours, she was already overworked as Cat’s assistant, and the older woman wasn’t exactly in any danger. She was bored, alone and on her way to being drunk. The woman wasn’t even hurt all that much; it turned out her ankle simply suffered a minor bruise, and it healed quite nicely over the course of two days. She could’ve easily gone home and pretended Supergirl was saving someone on the other side of National City. 

So why was she already floating near Cat’s balcony? 

“You didn’t exactly ask, you know,” words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. “My number? You just didn’t ask.” 

Cat, seemingly not phased by her appearance, carefully placed her glass on a table.

“I vividly recall saying how much easier it would be if you just gave me your number.”

“Yu-yes.” Kara mentally berated herself for an embarrassing slip-up. Around Cat, she wanted to seem much older than she actually was. While Kara Danvers couldn’t have that kind of luxury, Supergirl could, no, needed to. That meant, at least to Kara, that teenage speak was out of the question. No more _yupping,_ she thought. Thankfully, even if Cat noticed – and Kara was absolutely sure she did – she chose not to say anything. 

“Yes,” she tried again. “You made a snarky comment – I’ve noticed you’re quite fond of them – but you didn’t _ask.”_

 “And it seems I don’t need to,” the woman smirked, standing up. “If I didn’t know any better, I would still be sure you _are_ my assistant. Only, you did take a tad longer than her when I called your name.”

“It’s not _actually_ my name,” Kara said. Cat was right, she realized. For some reason, she couldn’t help but come running as soon as the older woman so much as uttered her name. It didn’t matter whether she was wearing a cape or a cardigan; Cat Grant had the kind of hold on her she could only describe as supernatural. Wasn’t it demeaning? Maybe not for Kara Danvers; but for the first female superhero of National City, it was rather pathetic. What about Kara Zor-El?

“Well, I’m assuming you don’t want me to know your real name… Unless you trust me enough to…?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Grant. I trust you about as far as I can throw you, which is very, very far, but I cannot share that information with you. Also, do not assume I will always come at your request. Tonight, I just happened to be nearby.”

Cat narrowed her eyes, and the girl had the urge to nervously swallow the sudden lump in her throat. She wasn’t well-versed in her employer’s facial expressions, yet; she knew that Cat wanted to strangle someone ninety percent of the time, judging by her face. She also knew that she reserved her smiles for Carter and Carter only; not smug ones, like the smirk she got when Dirk was hauled out of the building, no: genuine ones, the ones that made her eyes smile, too. Supergirl also got one of these, she realized with a start. But for the time being, it looked like Supergirl was about to get one of the worst verbal beatings in the existence.

Cat opened her mouth to speak. Kara Danvers began to sweat nervously. Supergirl set her jaw.

“You’re right. I’m sorry for what I said earlier, and I want you to know that I didn’t mean it. It was, well, an ice breaker, if you will.”

Kara Danvers was close to fainting. Cat didn't apologize, ever. She just didn't. 

“I will,” she heard herself say. “And your apologies are accepted, Miss Grant.”

Cat looked at her, then. Really looked at her. She looked at her just like the night she asked her to remove her glasses; the day Carter unexpectedly threw himself into her arms; the day she proved Dirk was behind the hacking. And it scared her, because no one ever looked at her like they knew everything there was to know about her, no one before Cat Grant, which was ironic, because Cat didn’t know the half of it, and Kara was determined to keep it that way.

And so Kara looked back, straight into the intelligent eyes of the other woman, doing her best to appear calm and confident. Cat was the first to lower her gaze, blinking as she glanced down before looking up again, this time without an insatiable curiosity in her eyes.

“You’ve saved my life several times, dear, I think you’ve earned the right to call me ‘Cat’.”

 _Oh, so risking_ my _life everyday while carrying those extra hot lattes for you isn’t enough to call you Cat?_ Kara thought to herself, amused.

“Why did you call me, Cat?” She said instead, lowering herself to the ground and approaching her boss. “There are people who need saving, you know.”

“I’m sure even you need to rest sometimes, Supergirl.” Cat suddenly got a curious gleam in her eyes. “Do you actually need to sleep?”

Kara didn’t know. She was fine sleeping five hours or less every night, but she still slept, however small amount of time that was. But Cat didn’t need to know that. So instead she asked:

“Is that part of the interview that we didn’t even schedule?” 

She didn’t like Cat’s smile. Not one bit.

“Oh. So what you’re saying is, you’re available for an interview?”

She did gulp this time.


	2. Chapter 2

“Here’s your latte, Miss Grant.”

“Ah, perfect.” While Kara widened her eyes at Cat’s unusual high praise, the woman in question already walked past her, snatching her coffee from the girl’s outstretched hand and promptly dumping it into a trashcan. Kara sighed. _Now that seems just about right,_ she thought. “Come. Sit.”

The girl froze. Last time Cat invited her to sit and chat, things quickly spiraled out of control. Had Cat connected the dots last night and was onto her, again?

“Kiera, I do not have all day. Chop chop.”

She flinched and took a seat, fearfully looking at her boss. Miss Grant certainly was in a good mood today, she noted. Kara wouldn’t go as far as stating she looked _happy_ , but she definitely seemed pleased with herself. Well, more so than usual.

“W-what is it, Miss Grant?” Lately, her stutter seemed to be consistently present around Cat. Alex suggested that while yes, Cat was an intimidating person – well, she used the words ‘nasty, spiteful woman’ instead, but Kara might’ve slightly risen her voice at that, and they may or may not have had a tiny teeny argument… Anyway, her big sister thought that her stutter could also be her mind’s attempt at defending her secret identity, apart from Kara simply being nervous around her boss. Supergirl would never stutter, she said. Supergirl was effortlessly cool. Yet another thing that further separated her from the caped superhero.

Kara Danvers should be everything Supergirl wasn’t.

“Well, Kiera,” Cat began, shaking Kara out of her thoughts.  “As we’ve discussed before, I am working on taking my role as your mentor seriously, and yes, I have just called myself your mentor, cherish that, because it is not happening again. So, you are the first person I am sharing this with.”

Kara gulped.

Cat continued.

“Tomorrow night, Supergirl is giving me an exclusive interview, and I once again will be the one – and only one – who gets to… _unmask_ our hero.”

“Un… Unmask?!” Kara squeaked, terrified. Agreeing to do the interview was a bad idea, she knew that! But Cat was looking at her strangely, so she hurried to cover up her exclamation, lest Cat think she was taking it too personally, again. “Um, why… why tomorrow night and not today?”

“Oh, Kiera, I knew you would be wondering about that. You are, after all, a very competent young woman, and you’ve noticed I am not known for my patience. I actually wanted her to do that yesterday, but she insisted on tomorrow.” Cat reached the print of Supergril on a stand, the one facing her desk, and absentmindedly stroked the girl’s face on the cover. The younger woman forced herself not to look away at the gesture. The way her boss smiled, almost – dare she say it? – _dreamy_ , the was she gently traced her finger down her photograph – it felt far too intimate to Kara.

“The girl does enjoy power play, you know,” Cat stated, turning to look at her assistant. “During our meeting, the air _reeked_ of her desperation to establish her own terms. Supergirl wants us to be equal, and for now, I’m gonna let it happen.”

It stung, deep. Kara felt a familiar burn of anger, and she struggled to keep it down. Some leaked through, anyway.

“Well, she does have a point. She _is_ a superhero. She defeated Reactron!’

“Kiera, I swear, sometimes you’re worse than Carter,” Cat dismissed, walking back to her desk. She sat, ready to wave her assistant off, but, upon noticing the look on Kara’s face, she softened. “Look, I’m not saying she’s not a hero. And she is every bit the hero Superman is, if not more,” she added, reciting Kara’s words the girl exploded with not so long ago. “But you don’t have to be a hero to be powerful, just like you don’t have to be powerful to be a hero.” She leveled her gaze with Kara’s, then. “Take you, for example. You are an ordinary assistant, Ka…iera. But you managed to save me from downfall, using your very human abilities. You were my hero that day, you know.”

Never once in her young life had she experienced such an array of emotions. Nobody could get her to feel so many things at once. Cat was right, but she was also wrong; it killed Kara to be lying to her mentor about something so important. Kara Danvers would have never been able to save Cat; Supergirl had done it. Her supernatural hearing got her information, her enhanced sight helped James get in and out of Dirk’s office unscathed. She may have been the hero that day, but it wasn’t all Kara Danvers. _She_ wasn’t all Kara Danvers.

Everything was confusing and complicated and if she could feel pain, her head would be exploding right now.

Out loud, Kara did what she did best under Cat Grant’s scrutinizing gaze: fret.

“Oh, um, Miss Grant, it wasn’t… I mean, I just…”

“And do you know why you were a hero?” Cat continued calmly, not paying any attention to Kara’s embarrassed mumbling. “You had help. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. Everyone needs a support system, and you managed to build a very sound one. Supergirl has a thing or two to learn from you.”

It wasn’t even ironic anymore. Now things were borderline ridiculous.

“Somehow I doubt it, Miss Grant,” Kara said. “Congratulations on you booking an interview with Supergirl. I will put it on your schedule.”

“I’m not likely to forget about it, but please do, Kiera, thank you.”

“Okay.” Kara stood, awkwardly smoothing over her shirt. “Well, I’m just gonna…”

“Yes, go, I’m sure you have a million things to do,” Cat said, her attention on Supergirl already. Which was, for the lack of a better word, ironic.

Kara really, really hated that word.

She nodded to herself and hurried to make an exit.

 

* * *

 

 

Kara had only felt real exhaustion once, when she lost her powers and was a human for a day, but last few weeks she was constantly reminded of that time. Between saving the day and running Cat’s packed daily schedules, she also had to work twice as hard to keep her secret from her boss. Which proved to be incredibly difficult when said boss talked to Supergirl practically every night.

In all honesty, it was her own fault. After that interview, flying past CatCo building became a habit, and every time Cat Grant was on the balcony, sipping wine and refusing to admit she was there waiting for her. Soon, every patrol began with a piece of advice from her boss. Soon after that, a piece of advice turned into a conversation. And then conversations were accompanied by food. Well, food kinda was Kara’s fault, too: one night she remembered that Cat had to miss lunch that day, and she brought a salad with her. By salad, she meant cheeseburger. Cat arched one impeccable eyebrow, sneered at the package and devoured everything, not leaving a crumb. Next time, Kara brought salad, because Cat trash-talked Supergirl’s food choices the entire day after that. “ _Not everyone has her metabolism. She just had to rub it in my face, didn’t she?”_ Cat raved on and on, while Kara blushed and looked down. She wasn’t rubbing anything in, really. She simply knew that her boss would be agitated after her stressful day full of meetings and arguments, and she would crave a burger.

But Cat didn’t know that. Cat would’ve been thankful and impressed if it was from Kara Danvers, not Supergirl.

It was amazing how much her expectations of Kara differed from those of her alter-ego.

However, wearing an “S” meant being able to speak freely, without the fear of being fired or reprimanded. She could be stronger with her opinions; she was allowed to engage in a friendly battle of wits and participate in debates about politics and history and literature, and each time their disputes ended with Cat silently appraising her with an impressed twinkle in her eyes, Kara had a celebratory flight across country, too excited to sleep. She found out Cat didn’t care much for poetry, much preferring prose; she also learned that Cat shared her deep love for musicals and Broadway, and they spent a handful of nights discussing their favorite soundtrack.

Cat still hadn’t released the interview. She asked her about it, twice, each time under different name.

“Masterpiece takes time, Kiera,” she said to her assistant.

“Some things have to be savored,” she said to the city’s savior.

Either way, it wasn’t happening for some reason and Kara was too exhausted mentally to be questioning her boss’ motives. She was simply happy Cat hadn’t done anything that could compromise her. And, after freaking out for a couple of days, she also made peace with their _meetings_ – that was as far as Kara was willing to go in calling their almost-daily thing. Everything was as normal as it could be under circumstances.

And, of course, as it usually goes, life just had to mess it up.

Today started out pretty much the same as usual, with Cat throwing out her latte and bossing Kara around a little bit, before:

“Oh, and I need you to order flowers. They have to be perfect, consult with me before placing an order. Also have Masa deliver sushi tonight at 9.”

“Absolutely, Miss Grant,” Kara dutifully noted everything down on her tablet. “Um, any preferences on the flowers?”

“Gosh, I wish I knew,” Cat muttered. She looked up at Kara suddenly, making the girl flinch. “Wait. Yes. Preferences. To hell with sushi, she likes pizza. Call Dorsia, get a pepperoni one and a vegetarian. Oh, and wine. No, not wine, she can’t have wine. Does flying constitute as driving, given that one is able to fly?”

Kara pursued her lips, thinking.

“Well, I think that it could be. One probably shouldn’t drink if they’re flying. Pilots aren’t allowed to drink, for example.” Imagine what would happen if she was able to get drunk on human alcohol. Buildings would be her lamp posts. FUI, Flying Under Influence. Kara started to chuckle when it hit her.

Flowers. Expensive meal. At 9 o’clock. Flying. Why would Cat be asking about flying if it wasn’t about…

Oh, crap. Holy crap on a cracker.

Kara was about to organize her own date with Cat Grant. And later, when Cat found out, her funeral.

This couldn’t be happening.

“Get a bottle of white wine for me, then. And fresh juice.”

“Apple,” Kara automatically added. “Apple works nice with pizza.”

Cat looked at her strangely.

“I wouldn’t know, but I’ll trust you on that one.”

This couldn’t be happening. And yet, it was very much happening, tonight, at 9 p.m.

She was so royally screwed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for your kind words. Reviews are always much appreciated. I encourage you to share your thoughts about the chapter.

This was, for all intents and purposes, a disaster. And not a ‘beautiful disaster’, how pretentious assholes like to call a teenager acting out by snorting coke in a public bathroom and smoking behind the school while giving a grand pointless speech full of clichés about – wow, yet another reason for Kara to limit her daily ‘Cat Grant’ intake. Anyway. It was a full on ‘Katrina’ situation, that’s what it was.  
  
Or, in other, less dramatic but not less terrifying words, she was on a date with Cat freaking Grant, and the Queen of All Media was awkward. And when she was awkward, she usually hopped aboard the ‘let’s get so fucking drunk we can’t remember why we’re awkward in the first place’ train. And Kara was seriously considering joining her, but, because of her own big mouth and a constant presence of a foot in it, she was stuck with apple juice. Plus, she’d probably need to drink several gallons of absinth to get even remotely drunk. Or not. She never did find out just how much she had to drink to become intoxicated.  
  
She did know one thing – Cat Grant didn’t need much, and it was on her to make sure her boss didn’t reach that stage, for both their sakes. And also for the sake of poor human Kara the assistant, who will be dealing with a hangover boss who tends to compensate her embarrassment by being an absolute nightmare to deal with.  
  
“Miss Grant, I hope you don’t think I’m being rude or disrespectful, but…” She really needed to think things through because right now, she didn’t have the continuation of this sentence. Well, one that wouldn’t piss off Cat, which would result in her straight up chugging that bottle of wine.  
  
“Yes, Supergirl? Gosh, that name sounds really weird in a casual conversation, now that I think about it,” Cat mused, already well on her second glass. “Great for headlines. Really doesn’t work at dinner.” She squinted. “Should we come up with a new name for you, since you can’t tell me your real name for secret identity reasons?”  
  
Kara simply sat there, blinking.  
  
“Oh! You were going to tell me something,” Cat focused her gaze on the hero. “What is it?”  
  
Screw being sensitive, she had to save that date now. For mentor-mentee relationship reasons, of course. And for her assistant identity.  
  
“I just think it would be better if we both were on the same level, and since I can’t get drunk…”  
  
“Oh.” Cat nodded and, to Kara’s relief, simply placed the glass on the table, sliding it away. “Then I would have to ask for your juice.”  
  
“Won’t be a problem. Not like we’re gonna run out.”  
  
They eyed a small fridge stocked with apple juice to the brim.  
  
“Yes, my assistant, Kara, she… She sometimes… You know what, no. This is on me. I presume you already know the purpose of this thing we’re currently failing at,” Cat gestured between them.  
  
“I, uh, yes, I noticed it was different from our previous dinners.” Kara saw a golden opportunity then and went for it. “And it doesn’t have to be! Why don’t we go back to the way it was before? This clearly isn’t working.”  
  
“Hmm, yes. Our previous dates –“  
  
“Wait, dates?!”  
  
“-as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” A glare, of course. Cat Grant, ever the passive-aggressive one. “we should definitely take a more relaxed approach. You’re right.”  
  
That was absolutely not what Kara meant, but she was kinda afraid to say anything now. She may be able to lift cars and punch people real hard, but Cat Grant was on a whole other level of intimidation.  
  
“So,” Cat delicately took a sip from her glass full of apple juice which Kara filled for her. Habits die hard, indeed. “Have you read my suggestions?”  
  
Kara was about to steer the conversation back to them not dating, neither now nor in the future, but faith chose to play her joke right as she was about to ‘not-dump’ Cat Grant.  
  
‘ _Supergirl, I need you at Woodbridge, stat.’_ Hank’s voice came through the speaker, pausing her right before she started to speak. This meant two things: one, she didn’t have to suffer through a very uncomfortable confrontation. Two: she’d have to suffer through it eventually, and now that it was delayed, her anxiety levels would be through the roof up until the moment they finally hashed everything out.  
  
“You need to go,” Cat stated, trying to mask her disappointment. Kara felt a small pang of guilt. About having to leave her with a false hope, of course. No other reason.  
  
“I’m sorry. We’ll finish this later. The conversation, I mean.” What was it about Cat that reduced her to a fumbling fool?  
  
“Among other things,” the older woman replied. The last thing Kara saw before taking off was mischievous twinkle in Cat’s eyes.

* * *

Naturally, things got worse. Kara hated it when she was right.  
  
Turned out that for all of her heroic deeds, Supergirl was chicken shit when it came to dumping her boss, and technically not even dumping since they weren’t dating in the first place – for some reason, Kara always had to remind herself of that. So, instead of facing her demons – and by demons she meant a sinfully attractive boss who liked her skirt hiked up when she lounged in a chair – she simply made one excuse after another and stopped showing up to their dates. Dinners. To their dinners.  
  
But Cat Grant was nothing if not resilient.  
  
Her plan “Woo Supergirl” was set in motion, and Kara Danvers was in on it. She found a construction company and had them install a small, but durable glass case on the rooftop of CatCo building, where Kara had to leave messages for Supergirl, so the wind wouldn't carry them away. It glowed at night, too. Kara was assisting her own love life, and she had a fucking glowing glass case to look forward to on her night patrols. ‘Kara bring me a latte’ was replaced by ‘Kara place those flowers on the rooftop’, and ‘Kara edit that buffoon’s article and craft his termination letter’ was instead ‘Kara skim through this note, does it make you barf and will it make Supergirl barf, too?’. And she couldn’t simply let the flowers rot in that damn case! She tried that once, and Cat was so upset the next morning she didn’t even throw a thinly veiled insult at Winn once. Not even once! It was a whole new side of Cat, a sulking, mute one, who was only able to consume jelly beans in unhealthy amounts. She even shared with Kara. Ever since then, Supergirl became a silent recipient, taking, but not answering. It was hell. Her very own, customized hell, probably for all the cats she failed to save from the trees because she was too busy playing with other aliens.  
  
And it didn’t help her any that Cat’s notes were incredibly, absolutely _beautiful_. The woman even wrote a poem once, and Kara had to excuse herself to go weep in the bathroom, clutching the damn piece of paper to her chest. The poem’s elegant, tender style tug at her heartstrings, and she simply couldn’t ignore this letter. So she didn’t come up with anything better to do than to leave her cape in the glass case in exchange for the letter. She thought it would be symbolic and romantic, and it was only the morning after when she realized that was kinda exactly the thing she was trying not to be with Cat. In her defense, Cat was positively glowing the whole day, and God she was starting to hate herself – the other, caped herself. Oh, and the confusion intensified tenfold, too.  
  
This had to stop. And it was only fitting that it would stop with the same person it technically started.

* * *

“You have _got_ to be kidding me, Supergirl.”  
  
Kara winced  
  
“I take it you’re in?” She gave an awkward, pleading smile to Hank who simply glowered in return. The Martian looked more disapproving than usual, and Kara was afraid.  
  
“You,” he pointed his finger at her, accusingly, “want me… _to dump Cat Grant for you_?”  
  
She winced again.  
  
“Not, like, dump. Just let her down. Gently. Please? My identity is at risk here,” she tried to appeal to reason, one thing she knew Hank couldn’t refute.  
  
“No, Miss Danvers, it’s much more than that. This is a matter of national security.” He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “You had every opportunity to do so yourself, and now – do you even understand the gravity of the situation?”  
  
Kara felt offended.  
  
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be asking you to do this! I’d be happily hanging out with Cat.”  
  
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about who you hang out with, but _dating_ Cat freaking Grant should be off the table to you. She’s the Queen of All Media! She exposed your relation to Superman! Kara, this woman is not to be trusted at all–“  
  
“Whoa, Hank, come on. She’s not that bad!” Kara was really tired of people assuming the worst about her boss. Especially ever since she found out what Cat was actually like.  
  
It was only after Hank’s eyes began glowing that she realized that was probably not the thing she should be refuting in the first place. She hurried to fix that. “Okay, that’s beside the point. And the point is – I am not dating her, and I am not going to, and I haven’t even thought of dating her!”  
  
Hank snorted.  
  
“Fascinating how Kryptonians blush just like humans when they’re lying their alien ass off.”  
  
Kara really, really didn’t have time for his sass.  
  
“Look,” she said. “I’d be happy to do it myself. But I am waitressing at this grand romantic dinner Cat’s organizing for - well, me, the other me. And I may be able to break a sound barrier, but I haven’t mastered the art of cloning myself just yet.”  
  
“Oh I’m sure your boss would’ve loved that,” Hank muttered. Kara chose to ignore him, because it wasn’t a terribly important remark, and it was also gross to hear Hank joke about threesomes.  
  
She also really didn’t need that particular image in her brain, but lately nothing went her way.  
  
“So I really need you to do this. I can’t get out of being a waitress for this date, because Cat might get suspicious again, it doesn’t take her long to connect the dots. I’m surprised I managed to fool her up until now.”  
  
“Don’t get too pleased with yourself, Danvers, it has much less to do with your stealth than with your boss being in heat for Supergirl.” Hank grumbled.  
  
“Oh, my God, really, ‘a cat in heat’ joke? And if you think Cat would have let her feelings cloud her judgment, you’re very wrong. Also, you’re gross.” She suddenly stopped caring about subordination. He wasn’t the only one frustrated with this problem. He didn’t have to constantly lie to someone he cared about – at least, not anymore, since he told Alex about his secret. She thought he would understand how difficult it was for her, and how much worse it had gotten. She couldn’t look her boss in the eye after reading all those notes, and she constantly had to hide how deeply touching they were to her. It was a mess, she was a mess, and she was so freaking tired.  
  
“Very mature, just like this whole conversation.” He shifted on his feet, letting out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. Tomorrow night?”  
  
Kara nodded.  
  
“Yes. That leaves us with twenty hours to prepare you.”  
  
“Wha- I have to prepare?” Hank looked incredulous.  
  
“Well, yeah. Supergirl read the notes, and Cat’s gonna want to talk about them.” She rocked on her feet, anxious to start. “Don’t worry, there’s not a lot of them, you just need to know the meaning in her words.”  
  
“I think I’m perfectly aware of what she wanted to say,” he grumbled. “Good God, what is it about journalists that make Kryptonians lose their bulletproof heads?”  
  
Kara chose to ignore that, too.


End file.
